From Penn State:
Environment Canada cuts threaten science, international agreements
Recent cuts to the scientific workforce of Environment Canada, a government agency responsible for meteorological services and environmental research, threaten scientific research related to the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere and pollution in the lower atmosphere, according to environmental scientists in the U.S. These reductions in personnel and projected budget cuts also threaten existing international agreements.
“Canada is a bellwether for environmental change, not only for Arctic ozone depletion but for pollutants that stream to North America from other continents, ” said Anne Thompson, professor of meteorology, Penn State. “It is unthinkable that data collection is beginning to shut down in this vast country, in some cases at stations that started decades ago.”
The researchers, commenting in the current (Feb. 14) issue of the American Geophysical Unions Eos newspaper, state that since August when the cuts went into effect, ozone soundings have ceased at several Canadian stations. Lidar network measurements of particle pollution layers from five Canadian stations no longer occur, and the website that was distributing this data has disappeared.
Environment Canada conducts many programs in support of international agreements including the UN framework for Climate Change Convention, the Montreal Protocol and U.S. bilateral agreements. The Canadian government signed all these agreements, but their ability to fulfil their obligations is now in question.
“Research conducted by scientists in Canada has been instrumental for the success of the Montreal Protocol, the international legislation that has successfully reduced atmospheric levels of ozone depleting substances,” said Ross Salawitch, professor in the atmospheric and oceanic science department, University of Maryland, College Park. “The ozone layer, particularly in the Arctic, is still sensitive because of the long atmospheric lifetime of pollutants that cause ozone depletion.”
Binational agreements between Canada and the U.S. are also of concern to scientists and policy makers.
“A number of research areas in which Canada has shown past leadership now face a questionable future,” said Ray Hoff, professor of physics, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “These include deposition of toxic organic chemicals from the air onto the Great Lakes and vertical profiling of aerosols using laser radar.”
Franco Einaudi, retired, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, adds, “Recent comments by Canada at the Durban Climate Change Summit have added to the concern that Canada’s environmental commitment may be changing.”
With Canada’s vast Northern Territory, tracking climatic sensitivities as well as ozone depletion and arctic pollution are concerns of scientists and policymakers alike. Environment Canada’s programs have long been a gold standard. With personnel losses and further decisions on reductions in force or re-assignment of personnel pending, the researchers are concerned that they and the international community can no longer rely on the exceptional efforts and past leadership that Canada exhibited.
“Canada stands to lose an entire community of highly respected scientists who are experts on ozone and climate if further proposed budget cuts go through,” said Jennifer Logan, senior research fellow in atmospheric chemistry, Harvard University.
Future budget cuts at Environment Canada appear certain. Until the community is given specifics about the long-term environmental program, the ability for Canada to maintain its key role in support of science and the international agreements like the Montreal Protocol is compromised. The world stands to lose an enormous amount of data necessary for our understanding of the environment in these cold reaches and around the globe if these programs end.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I smell a large rat here.
Aerosols, particulates, ozone. These are poorly researched areas that contribute to climate change to a largely unknown degree.
The rat I smell is that research programs that could challenge the GHG AGW orthodoxy have been cut/axed, presumably while saving programs that support the orthodoxy.
Bravo Canada!
Clean up and go!
Q: What is it with Penn State and NASA “scientists” anyway, since when did they start being so “political” as to be making such demands?
A: Real science is hard work, climate science is after easy public money. Fortunately Canada is starting to see through the special interest scheme. Way to go Canada!
Cut baby Cut
We need the leadership and realistic thinking from Canada right now. We certainly have not been seeing any such thing down here
What’s the big deal anyway? It’ll say whatever they want after homogenization anyway.
So Canada just about destroyed their economy and the people that were causing the destruction are decrying that Canada now can’t afford the people that just about destoryed their economy?
Maybe some folks are wising up; maybe other folks aren’t wising up at all.
The province of British Columbia is Canada’s version of California but with a twist. See we have a carbon tax on fuel and natural gas, but we export coal, oil and natural gas. Also will be building two LNG plants to export even more natural gas. The University of Victoria is the home of Andrew Weaver and we also have David Suzuki the fruit fly expert but I do not think he has looked at a bug in decades.
dp says:
February 13, 2012 at 8:04 pm
Snow peas is the only thing that comes to mind.
What the Env. Canada bureaucracy may be doing is cutting their most valuable services in order to generate a public and/or media backlash that restores all their funding. This is what some other politically savvy agencies faced with budget cuts have done–they’ve cut the hours they are open, etc. They should cut their global warming covens instead.
Well if they hadn’t spent all their time and our taxpayer funds concocting bulldust from data,then a lot of this cutting back wouldn’t be happening….. Anyway I’d suspect that it is mainly all the extra stuff that is being axed…. they’ll get what they need from now on. Not what they want. 🙂
Pointless expensive bureaucracies, such as government climate change departments, are like cancers in that they just grow and damage their host. Their usefulness, if any, when measured on a per capita basis, steadily declines over time.
The amount of money, desperately needed elsewhere, wasted by the world on these government funded climate ‘investigation’ bureaucracies is staggering. However, that pales into insignificance against the cost of ‘the cure’ proposed by the pampered bureaucrats they employ or fund.
The sooner these ‘scientists’ and bureaucracies are consigned to the dustbin of history, the better it will be for all of us.
Well done Canada.
IanB says:
February 13, 2012 at 8:30 pm
“Isn’t that against “The UN Charter Of Domicile Freedoms, Don’t Question What I Do, Hey I’m Still A UN Member” thingy?”
So is one sovereign country explicitly exporting weapons to criminals in another sovereign country for the purpose of increasing drug violence.
Usually this is done as an effort to destabilize and overthrow the victim government. Beats me what E. Holder et al were doing it for.
GeoLurking says:
“Usually this is done as an effort to destabilize and overthrow the victim government. Beats me what E. Holder et al were doing it for.”
================
If I recall, they actually used it to argue for stricter controls on gun shops. Y’know, because strict regulations will stop sales to criminals when the ATF (who can pull a shop’s license essentially on a whim) specifically instructs the owners to allow the sales to go through when they call the ATF to report a suspicious buyer.
If ALL the climate scientists in the world went on strike to support their Canuck brothers, I dont think anyone would notice.
ferd berple says: February 13, 2012 at 6:35 pm
“Canada stands to lose an entire community of highly respected
scientists who are experts on ozone and climate if further proposed
budget cuts go through,”
Why, are these scientists suddenly going to drop dead? No, they
will either go into private industry and create jobs or go work for the
government of some other country and become a drain on their
economy. Either way a win win.
What I’m wondering is, does Michael Mann and Co. think that these researchers will now be free agents in search of income from Mike’s ca$h cow? It would be in Mike’s interest to keep them up north. If the U.S. market becomes flooded with more climate researchers, less cake for Mr. Mann & Co.
Some people in Canadia showing common sense and fortitude. Please reward them.
There is still more to learn about high altitude ozone chemistry, free radicals, anti-oxidants, etc.
The same can be said for dietary fads, where anti-oxidants are being pushed to fraudulent limits to gullible people who want to “detox” and do other strange acts.
However, in both cases, the work has to compete fairly for that scarce research dollar.
Canada has finally woken up to the fact that for all their efforts to collect good data, the bad “science” its used in by bad “scientists” means they might as well not bother and save themselves some time, effort and money.
Way to go warmers, corrupted the whole scientific method with your brand of green lunacy, dont be surprised when it comes off the rails.
Canada! Good for you guys! Others should soon follow suit.
Does the canadian environment care about the loss of “enviromental science”?
I think not…
What a terrible shame that these “scientists and researchers” at cutting edge computer games are about to be asked to find new employment. Canada I am jealous, we still have an idiot in charge in OZ.
Greenpeace and WWF will be getting a lot of CVs.
This is good news. Environmental research groups seem to attract activists who soon push the ‘science’ towards the improbable/impossible claims. They waste taxpayer money. Canada is well rid of.
http://icoads.noaa.gov/products.html
Not so fast with all the guffawing “sack the lot of ’em” jerk comments.
Good data collection is NEEDED to show AGW is a crock. Nothing would please the AGW crowd more that if data collection stops before it provides even more incontrovertible proof that it’s all been a lie.
AGW’s Killing Fields.
…-
“No, this is no mere cold snap. There’s a tragedy unfolding in Europe, and the world needs to know.
Tragedy unfolding in Europe – Is U.S. media trying to ignore it?”
“But it’s that “cold snap” thing that bugs me.
Did all of the world’s journalists go to “cold snap” school?
If temperatures go up by a hundredth of a degree they scream “global warming.” But if, heaven forbid, it’s record cold and record snow? “Well, let’s just call it a cold snap.”
Would you call it a “cold snap” when more than 100 vessels become trapped in icy waters of the Sea of Azov? That’s what Reuters called it. “A fierce cold snap with temperatures of about -25C (-13 F) caused large parts of the Azov Sea to freeze,” said Reuters.
Would you call it a “cold snap” when more than 2,000 roads in Turkey are blocked by heavy snows? That’s what the Google News headline announced. The article itself was very good, speaking of brutal cold and record low temperatures, but – “cold snap”?
Would you call it a “cold snap” when people have to cut tunnels through 15 feet of snow to get out of their homes? “Eastern Europe has been pummeled by a record-breaking cold snap,” says this otherwise great AP article.
Look at these headlines. Are these the result of a “cold snap”?
Look at these headlines. Are these the result of a “cold snap”?
Serbia cuts power in desperate bid to prevent collapse of national grid The country’s entire electric distribution system could collapse…
Hundreds of barns collapse in Italy At least one million farm animals in danger of running out of food.
Villages buried under 4-5 meters of snow—Video “23.000 people are isolated, how many people and animals have died we don’t know since nobody can reach there.”
Italian villages trapped in more than 9 feet of snow With the death toll already at 43, another blast of freezing weather…
Danube freezes over—One of the greatest rivers in Europe Danube wholly or partially blocked in six countries.
Most winter grain destroyed in southern and eastern Ukraine With temperatures 12 to 17C below average, the situation in Ukraine has became serious.
European death toll rises to 480—and counting 150 cattle killed when roofs collapse. “It seems more like a war in Europe.”
Code red for agriculture in Tuscany “Blizzard comes and farmers tremble”—Loss rates up to 50%.
Turkey quake survivors fighting the snow Walking 300 feet through the snow to reach the nearest toilets.
No, this is no mere cold snap. There’s a tragedy unfolding in Europe, and the world needs to know.
Please forward this article to everyone you can.
Robert Felix”
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/44605
Funding Shortage Threatens Germany’s Energy Revolution
SPIEGEL ONLINE – February 13, 2012
Germany’s climate fund, a cornerstone of the government’s much hyped transition towards renewable energy, has been massively underfunded during its first year of operation. The Green Party has accused the government of failing in its plan to create an energy revolution.
the outlook for the fund remains bleak for 2012, given that the income from emissions trading has fallen short of predictions. The current market price of carbon-dioxide certificates is €7.50 rather than the expected €17, which the calculations for the fund were based on. Faced with less income than expected from emissions trading, the Finance Ministry is now considering boosting the ailing climate fund by giving it an “unplanned liquidity loan” from the federal budget.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,814905,00.html
They run out of others people’s money.
Why do you think Fritz Vahrenholt changed side. No money no believe in. A change you can believe in.